Budvar harks back to tradition

26 November, 2010

ByNicola Collenette?

Budvar UK has launched an unpasteurised lager which it describes as the “jewel in the brewery’s crown”.

Its Yeast Beer has a short shelf life of four weeks and has so far only been made available to a handful of on-trade outlets, but sales director Joe Laventure said there was scope for it to be released to specialist off-trade shops as well.

“It’s not about volumes, it’s about the beer,” he told OLN.

The 5% abv lager is produced in the same way as Budvar Original but yeast is added at the end of its 100-day maturation period.

It has to be stored upright for at least six hours before tapping at a temperature of 3°C-5°C.

The beer has only been available at the Great British Beer Festival and one London pub before, and Laventure said the brewery “took a lot of persuading” to release it in the UK.

Beer writer Roger Protz said Budvar was defending the traditional way of producing lager.

Speaking at its launch last week, he said it was a “touch of history and close to a real ale version of lager”.

POS includes posters and postcards depicting the beer as Extreme Budvar – the Ultimate Lager. It describes the Yeast Beer as being the “Peter Pan of beers – never growing up”.

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